Church Ain't Your Granddaddy's Oldsmobile Anymore

Are mainline churches going the way of your granddaddy’s Oldsmobile?

When I was growing up in Vernon Alabama, the choice of churches to attend was limitless. That is, if you were a Baptist. My friend Delmont used to say that if you threw a rock in Vernon, you would hit a stray dog or a Baptist Church. We had the First Baptist Church of course. Then there were all the Southern Baptist churches that had split from the big church and there were country Baptist churches. My father was a member of the Freewill Baptist Church. Southern Baptist believed “once saved, always saved”. Freewill Baptists believed that you could “backslide” and go from a heavenly direction back to a more southerly direction. And, if you went to a Freewill Baptist church, you might even get your feet washed occasionally. Then there were the Missionary Baptists, Hardshell Baptists (Primitive Baptist), and I am sure there were some Softshell Baptists. If your family was a little better off financially, you could attend the Methodist Church. Then there was the Church of Christ or as they were called by the other churches, “Camel-Lites”. Or, at least that is the way they said it in Vernon. I only found out later it should be Campbell and not Camel because it was started as a frontier church by Alexander Campbell. You didn’t go to the Church of Christ if you liked instrumental music. They sang everything a cappella. And there was a smattering of Pentecostal and African-American churches. No Jewish Synagogue. No Catholic Church. No Presbyterian Church. No Episcopal Church. No Lutheran Church. No Mormon Church. In fact, the young ladies of the town were generally prohibited from dating young men from these Foreign religions.

According to what I have heard, mainline church attendance started going into a decline around 1968. The trend has continued for the last 45 years. Generation X and the Millennial’s and some Baby Boomers seem to have become disillusioned with the traditional church. These generations seem to be attracted to mega-churches with church orchestras and the preacher wearing tennis shoes, more charismatic denominations, but a substantial percentage are unchurched. Some of the mainline churches have started offering contemporary and nontraditional services in addition to their traditional service. And then there are those who take it a step further.

In October, we were visiting friends in Orange Beach. Our friends suggested we attend church services on Sunday at the Church on the Beach. This sounded appealing. It also turned out to be very interesting. The service was an outreach of the Methodist Church in Orange Beach. The service was held at the Flora Bama. “Wait”, we said, “isn’t that the hell raising bar with brassieres hanging from the ceiling where they toss mullet fish for fun.” Yes, it was. As we arrived, several hundred attendees were crossing Beach Road going toward the Flora Bama with a country-rock band playing upbeat Christian music in the background. We walked through the bar area with the hanging bras, through the frozen margarita area, out to the large covered deck in the back. There were rows of folding chairs with people in casual church clothes and many who looked like they had just gotten the back of a Harley. There was a lot of good singing, praise music, some traditional hymns, and some popular tunes. It was upbeat and spontaneous but the service and the preaching was not uncomfortable. It was somewhat disconcerting that a banner sponsored by Budweiser behind the preacher proclaimed that there would be a bikini contest the following weekend. At the end of the service, the young pastor invited everyone to go to the beach where they would be baptizing a young lady in the Gulf of Mexico. We didn’t go out, we went to lunch to get some fresh seafood. It was not your grandfather’s traditional church service, but we enjoyed it and gave the church credit for reaching out to nontraditional churchgoers and temporary beach wellers.

PS: A week later, we were on our way to services at First Christian Church of Birmingham. On public radio, there was a story about a church out West, of our own denomination, who had started Church at a Pub where churchgoers joyously sang hymns while enjoying a mug of beer.(Two beer limit)